Top Chef Season 7: Covert Cuisine, Episode 10

With the departure of Kenny, I wasn't looking forward to this episode of Top Chef. I thought it would be all about Angelo and his ego. And in a way it was; just not the usual bragging and posturing. Dude seemed off his game last night. What was consistent in this episode was Alex-bashing. He has emerged as the human soccer ball of Top Chef in terms of being kicked around by so many people.

For the Quickfire Challenge, the judge was Wylie Dufresne, from Top Chef Masters. The cheftestants were given identical mystery boxes and told to prepare a meal using those ingredients. Tiffany wasn't too thrilled with the task, however: "I don't like surprises and I don't like this challenge. I'm feeling this nervous energy. I'm just trying to stay calm and not freak out too much." It was also announced that the winner would take home $10,000. Then we learned an odd bit of trivia about Angelo, namely that he has a fiancé in Russia who needs a visa. Can we say mail order bride?

The first mystery box contained a whole fish, fava beans and an unlabeled can, which turned out to be hominy. For once on this season, Angelo looked lost. He couldn't decide whether to do a hot or cold dish. Then, another mystery box arrived with squid and black garlic. Just when everyone seemed thoroughly confused, another mystery box showed up with ramps and passion fruit. The last mystery box, and they were flying in pretty fast by now, contained jicama. Amanda whined, "I'm trying to roll with the punches, although there are several of them." The chefs were literally cooking until the last minute and looked exhausted. Normally cool Angelo was sweating into his food. Gross.

Alex's rockfish with fava bean puree, ramp fondue and sautéed squid

did not impress Wylie, who questioned whether his ramp has been cooked.

On the other hand, Tiffany's fish stew with hominy, fava beans, saffron

and black garlic received an enthusiastic nod from Wylie. Kelly, Kevin

and Angelo's dishes were generally well-received, while Amanda was

called out for her "oily" crispy skin striped bass, squid fricassee,

leek and mushroom fondue.

Predictably, Alex and

Amanda were on the bottom of the Quickfire Challenge. Tiffany and Kevin

were on top, with Tiffany taking home the $10,000.

For

the Elimination Challenge, Padma threw out a lot of puns about national

security and secret agents. Okay, we get it, the cheftestants are going

to have cook for the CIA. Better yet, they had to take a classic dish

and disguise it 007-style. Everyone drew knives to pick their entrée and